Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Carl E. Olson (Catholic) on Early Christian Premillennialism and the Development of Amillennialism


Carl Olson, a Roman Catholic, while writing in defence of Catholic eschatology (which is amillennial), admitted that:

It is true that several of the early Christian writers—notably Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Methodius, Commodianus, and Lactantius—were premillennialists who believe that Christ’s Second Coming would lead to a visible earthly reign. (Carl E. Olson, Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”? A Catholic Critique of the Rapture and Today’s Prophecy Preachers [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003], 118-19; cf. p. 143)

In a footnote for the above, we read:

The patristic scholar J.N.D. Kelly, writing about millenarianism in the second century, notes, “The Gnostic tendency to dissolve Christian eschatology into the myth of the soul’s upward ascent and return to God had to be resisted. On the other hand millenarianism, or the theory that the returned Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years, came to find increasing support among Christian teachers. We can observe these tendencies at work in the Apologists. Justin [Martyr], as we have suggested, ransacks the Old Testament for proof, as against Jewish critics, that the Messiah must have a twofold coming . . .The former coming was enacted at the incarnation, but the latter still lies in the future. It will take place, he suggests, at Jerusalem, where Christ will be recognized by the Jews who dishonoured Him at the sacrifice which avails for all penitent sinners, and where He will eat and drink with His disciples; and He will reign there a thousand years. This millenarian, or ‘chiliastic' doctrine was widely popular at this time” (Early Christian Doctrines, 5th ed. [New York: Harper and Row, 1978], p. 465). Kelly goes on to mention Barnabas, Papias, and Hippolytus. Also see Erickson, Basic Guide to Eschatology, pp. 94-97, and mention of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Lactantius. (Ibid., 118-19 n. 8; "chilastic" comes from the Greek for "thousand").

It is true that not all Christian writers in the Ante-Nicene period were premillennial in their eschatology; notwithstanding, much of their rejection of such a theology was due to their embrace and privileging of the “allegorical interpretation” which Olson defines concisely as:

Interpreting Scripture in order to find meanings that go beyond the literal interpretation and beneath the surface narrative, making a deeper connection with the reality of Christ. Examples include seeing the crossing of the Red Sea as a prefigurement of baptism (see CCC 117) or understanding Haggar and Sarah as representatives of the Old and New Covenants (see Gal 4:21-31). (Ibid., 359)

We see this in the eschatology of Origen of Alexandria and Augustine:

Origen (ca. 185-254), a Scripture scholar from Alexandria, was a strong opponent of chiliasm. Famous for his allegorical interpretations of Scripture, Origen located types and foreshadowings of Christ in nearly every nook and cranny of the Old Testament. He taught that the book of Revelation is highly symbolic and should not be interpreted literally. While Origen’s writings were influential, the most powerful opponent of chiliasm was Augustine. In City of God Augustine firmly rejected millenarianism, offering instead a subtle interpretation of history shaped by biblical eschatology but free of end time speculation or predictions of a literal, earthly Kingdom of God. Throughout time and history, Augustine taught, the City of God and the city of Satan war with one another, with the outcome already decided but not yet realized. At the end of time, at the Last Judgment, the citizens of these two cities would finally be separated—the sheep from the goats (Mt 25:32-46). Augustine saw God orchestrating time and history like an “unchanging conductor” (Augustine, Letter 38, 1), ordering events according to his providential will. (Ibid., 144-45).